


Escaping The Toy Box

by punkvjb93, SuperCana



Category: Marianas Trench
Genre: Concerts, Gen, Multi, Music, Musicians, Romance, Tour Bus, Touring
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-21
Updated: 2014-06-26
Packaged: 2018-01-02 06:07:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1053405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punkvjb93/pseuds/punkvjb93, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperCana/pseuds/SuperCana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cana and Veronica own their own company, Sew Made Up, and work as the wardrobe and make-up team for a few bands. It's not until they work with Marianas Trench that their professional /client relationship runs a littler deeper.<br/>Cana is pulled into the bizarre world that is Josh Ramsay, while Veronica is stuck between best friends and band mates Matt Webb and Mike Ayley.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One for the Money

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note:  
> Just thought I should let readers know, since my name is a bit obscure, it's pronounced "kay-nuh".  
> Yes, I've lived with it all my life.  
> Yes, I'll answer to anything.  
> Just thought you should know.  
> Also, this is co-written by me and my friend, Veronica. She gets credit too. :)

Cana's POV:

I had four pairs of pants draped over my arm as I sorted through the racks of clothing. One rack per band, thirty bands total, but where was Escape The Fates' rack? Veronica had "organized" the racks in a certain way, but was it in alphabetical order, or by the order of how they'd perform? I uttered a curse under my breath as I turned around the room. I scratched my head as I walked over to another rack. I should have labeled them. I couldn't even remember what shirts went with these pants.

Veronica and I had been in this business long enough to feel some serious stress about what we did. We were a wardrobe/make-up crew for bands. We had met in college and decided to start our own business, Sew Made Up. We had obviously started small, but when we got together with Suffocating Silence, an indie band who were small when we were first hired by them, we got some attention when they got big. We had been preparing for The Rotten Apple, a two day concert in New York City where thirty alternative/indie bands got together and played music basically all day. We had never had a project this big. We had only worked with one band at a time. Now we had thirty bands, made up of about four people each. And, of course, because of the types of people we are, V and I procrastinated and we now had only a week and a half before the concerts started and we had ten bands left to fit and alter their wardrobes.

Veronica and I made a good team, however I had the worst time during these prep days. I was the main wardrobe person, so I was the one who was working her ass off most of the past few weeks. She's more of the make-up person, not saying that she has it easy. Her job on the days of the concerts are when things pick up for her, and that's when I take the back seat. It was a good thing that we each at least knew a little bit about the other's particular field. If we didn't, we'd be shit out of luck.

I looked down at my watch. It was nearing four in the morning, and I was already running on five hours of sleep. I needed to take a nap if I was going to be any kind of seamstress tomorrow - or, rather, today. I looked into the back seam of the top pair of pants I had and read Craig's name. I walked over to another rack and looked at the tag of one of the shirts to see Monte's name. God, finally. I hung the pants up on their hangers and jogged out of the huge room. I stopped when I got to the main hallway and checked my phone. I pulled up my calendar to see which bands we had coming in next. At ten this morning we had Marianas Trench and at one we had Ghost Town.

I leaned against the wall and put my phone back in my pocket. We had co-rented out the first two floors of a warehouse in the less busy part of New York City to do all of our costuming business. Veronica and I had our sublet apartment in Boston, the city where we had gone to college, but since we had been here for weeks at a time, we had basically set up camp here. We had a large leather couch that made a perfect day bed, a mini fridge with enough food to stave off hunger, and enough Vodka to pick us back up after we had hit the floor in exhaustion.

I pushed myself off the wall, trying to motivate myself to trek all the way back down to our home base. I hurried down the flight of stairs, almost tripping on the last one. I could hear Veronica chuckling from the other room. I walked into the work room to find V sitting at the table with a bottle of water.

"You tripped, didn't you?" she smirked.

I rolled my eyes as I walked over to her, "Whatever." I sat down across from her at the table. "You made my life harder."

"How's that?"

"You re-organized the clothes racks the other day to your standards, and it made me confused."

She scoffed, "You mean, you can't spell? I put them alphabetically."

I slumped in my chair, "Oh."

"Do you need to go back to kindergarten?" I leaned my head on the table, ignoring her snide remark. "You tired?" I shook my head yes, remaining silent. "Why don't you go to bed then?"

"Because," I started, sitting back up, "we have another band to make alterations for and we'll have two more bands to measure tomorrow."

"Who's next in line?" she asked taking another sip of her water.

I leaned my head on my hand, "Marianas Trench and Ghost Town."

Her eyes grew wide, "Really?" I nodded. "Well, fuck me."

"Some other time," I grinned.

She shook her head in amusement, as she said, "But seriously, I love them."

"To be honest," I sighed, "I've never heard of most of these bands we've worked with so far."

She pointed at me, "Cana, you know Marianas Trench. Or, know of them, at least. They're the ones that sing Stutter."

"Oh," I perked up, "yeah, I like them." She laughed in amusement as she got up from the table, leaving her water behind. "What are you up to?"

She walked over to the sewing table and picked up a white shirt, "Alterations. That's what my life has come to."

I chuckled, "Sorry to drag you into my life. Who's it for?"

"Arejay Hale from Halestorm."

I grabbed her water bottle, took a sip and nodded. "It's so late," I muttered.

"You mean early," she corrected.

"Regardless, I'm shit tired."

"Go take a nap." I looked over at the leather couch. It did look inviting.

"But we have so much work to do," I thought aloud, looking over at her.

She held up the shirt, "I'm going to be working on this, and then I'm moving to the pants, which means Halestorm will be done." She smiled, "I've got it under control, okay, Cana? Go take a nap."

That's all the motivation I needed.

I got up from the table and walked over to the couch. I grabbed the blanket from off the back of it and threw it onto the cushions. I turned to the main door of the warehouse and plugged my phone into the socket beside the door. I usually didn't like my phone being more than an arm length away from me, but the door was only a few feet away, and frankly, I was too tired to care about the people who wanted to contact me. I looked at my watch again. Four-thirty. I could get approximately five hour of sleep before I'd have to clean up for Marianas Trench's fitting. I fell onto the couch and wrapped up into the blanket.  
I rolled onto my side and heard Veronica turn on Ever After by Marianas Trench to work by. The last thing I heard before I drifted off to sleep were the light harmonies of the voices from the song.


	2. Chapter 1

Veronica's POV:

I groaned as my head bobbed again. It was 8:50 A.M. Or what I liked to call an ungodly hour to be alive. I was trying and failing to stay awake. I really needed to get these pants done. Once they were complete all the outfits for Halestorm would be done and I could finally sleep for an hour while Cana cleaned up this mess. There was literally fabric all over the work stations...and the floor...and pretty much everywhere else. This is why I dealt with makeup. But there were just too many bands for Cana to do it by herself so I was now sitting here hand stitching pants because the sewing machine had broken and it was too late (or early depending how you looked at it) to replace it. I glanced over at Cana who was sleeping on the couch and quietly contemplated morphing her DNA with an octopus so she would have more arms to do all of this on her own. Canapus was quite entertaining in my mind with her cushion pins and measuring tape. God, I needed some sleep...

I rubbed my eyes with my free hand. I had been up for almost 24 hours at this point. I had been too worried to get any sleep. This was our first really big event that we were doing so the pressure was riding high. I sighed to myself as I stared down at the black pieces of fabric that still weren’t stitched together. Putting the needle in between my lips I put my hair up into a messy bun. “Ok, let’s get this done,” I mentally pep talked myself before removing the needle from in between my lips and delving into the task of pants making. 

I only got a few more stitches done before the door to the warehouse burst open with a bang to what appeared to be a black and blue haired man flailing as he tried not to fall from the impact of running into the heavy weighted door of the warehouse. Once he caught himself he said, “Kiddies, I’m home!” 

I could hear Cana yell, “Shit!” as she was awoken unexpectedly from her nap. My own eyes grew wide in sheer terror before feeling an enormous amount of pain searing throughout my hand. I looked down to see blood gushing out of one of my fingers. 

Apparently I had been so frightened that I ended up stabbing myself with my needle. And now I was bleeding all over the pants! “Oh God.” “Oh God,” I repeated out loud. And I repeated it again. And again. 

Cana was yelling at the man now. “What the fuck,” to be exact. She was pushed up on her tip toes to get more in his face. He seemed taken aback by her anger. What could I say? The girl liked her sleep. “Have you ever heard of knocking?” she said throwing her hands in his face. His face contorted slightly as he moved his head back trying not to get hit. 

“Sorry,” he chuckled softly rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Matt dared me to make... a grand entrance,” he told her his voice changing to a more amused tone for a second as he explained. Cana still stared at him unamused. 

“Cana,” I called softly cradling my arm. 

She let go of her intense gaze long enough to turn to see why I was calling her. I saw her eyes glance down in confusion at my hand before widening as she saw the pool of blood that was forming. She quickly made her way over to me. “What did you do?” she asked in a mixture of shock and concern as she stared down at my injury. 

“I don’t know,” I whimpered looking up at my friend with sad puppy dog eyes.

Suddenly the man Cana had argued with was standing behind her craning his neck around her to see what had happened. “Oh shit,” he said gawking at the wound. “I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to do that...” he said awkwardly his eyes shifting uncomfortably.

“It’s ok,” I muttered even though I was in an extreme amount of pain and that was certainly not ok. “Just fix it,” I said gritting my teeth and looking up Cana. 

“What the hell are you guys doing?” a curly haired man said as he and two other men gathered around us. They must have been the ones laughing hysterically outside. 

“You know, just bleeding,” I answered sarcastically. I didn’t do well when I was in pain. Or even worse, surrounded by a bunch of random men.

Cana turned to each of them and pointed, “You, you, you, and you,” she added extra emphasis when she had gotten to the blue haired man. “Sit down over there,” she motioned to the couch. “And don’t touch anything.”

The foursome retreated back toward the entrance to sit down. Cana prepared to pull the needle out of my finger. “Ok so this...it’s probably going to hurt,” she warned. 

I just glared up at her. “‘Cause it doesn’t hurt now.”

“Ok, so I’m going to pull it out on three. One...” she didn’t make it three, or even two, before ripping the the needle from my flesh.

I let out a scream of, “AHH BITCH!” as I clutched my finger. “I thought you were going to count to three?!” 

“I thought if I surprised you it would hurt less.” she shrugged. 

“Well it didn’t!” I bit my lip trying to relax myself. “Can I have a bandaid please?” I asked after a moment slightly calmer now. 

“Yea. One sec.” She headed toward the front of the shop where we kept our first aid kit. I followed her with my eyes as she went but my attention switched to the guys as she passed them. Three of them were sitting on one of the couches while the one Cana had been arguing with was sprawled across the one she had been napping on before they arrived nearly an hour early and royally scared the crap out of us.

One of the other ones, the one with the mohawk, leaned over and picked up a button off the floor and examined it. Cana turned hearing the movement an yelled, “Hey! What did I say about touching things?” The man froze, the button still in his hands. Her eyes darted from him down to the floor and then back to him. “Drop it.” So he did. Just let it go. And I burst out laughing.

They all slowly turned to me while I continued to laugh hysterically. “H...His face,” I said trying to cover my mouth with my good hand. 

Before I knew it my hand was being picked up. It was Cana. I looked up at her, tears rolling down my cheeks as I tried to cease my laughter. By the time she cleaned my wound and bandaged it I still hadn’t stopped. “I think you might have lost too much blood, dear.” 

I let our a long breath as my laughter finally died down. I wiped my eyes free of the tears that have formed there. I blinked a few times before my gaze fell back on the man with the mohawk who had dropped the button. He had an amused look on his face, as did the others I observed. “Sorry,” I stated with a smile, somewhat exasperated. “Your face was just priceless.”

He let out a light chuckle. “Well I’m glad I could cheer you up after Matt’s dare went to shit.”

“Hey!” The man I assumed to be Matt chimed in. “Josh was the one who did it! Don’t blame me!” 

“Nope. It was sooo your fault,” The man with the black and blue hair said as he hopped up to crouch on the couch. “I wouldn’t have done it if you didn’t dare me,” he told him snapping his fingers sassily in a ‘z’ motion. 

“Even if Matt didn’t dare you once she saw your face she probably would have been so scared that she would have stabbed herself,” the man with the curly hair added. All four of them ended up laughing at each other. 

Smiling to myself about the encounter I looked up at Cana to see her rolling her eyes. But I could also see an amused smirk tugging at the ends of her lips. 

Josh tapped impatiently on the back of the couch before saying, “So, we getting this party started or what?” 

Cana turned to him with a mocking look on her face. Clicking her tongue she said, “Ahhhh, no.” They all looked at her quizzically before she explained, “No one’s supposed to be here right now. Wait...Who are you guys anyway?” 

“Uhhh...Marianas Trench...” Matt replied slowly as if he weren’t sure of the answer to that question.   
Cana whipped her head in my direction. “I thought you knew them?”

“I listen to their music. I don’t actually know them, Cana.” 

“I know you don’t actually know them, know them. You told me you loved them I expected that you at least knew what they looked like.”

My cheeks started to burn bright red and I looked away in embarrassment. I didn’t even want to see the look on their faces. 

“Anyway, you guys are an hour early,” Cana stared at them expecting an answer. Hopefully that would throw them off enough so they would forget the comment about me loving them. 

“What?” Mike asked as Ian checked his watch. 

“It’s only nine. You’re supposed to be here at ten,” I added from my seat groggily from the lack sleep and blood. Damn I was tired. But I doubted I was getting any sleep anytime soon with these guys around. 

I then happened to look down at my work station and saw the pants that I still hadn’t finished sewing and gasped. “Oh my God Cana!” She turned to look at me, a confused look on her face due to my outburst. “The pants!” I said holding them up. “There’s blood all over them!” I could feel my stomach clench as I began to freak out. This couldn’t happen right now. I was so close to being done and now they were covered in blood. My blood! I felt faint. 

Cana returned to my side and took the pants out of my grasp. “They’re black. They’ll be fine,” she reassured me. 

I looked up at her in disbelief. “But...but...” I stuttered. 

“Yea she’s right.” I turned back to the couches to see Matt looking at me. “They look more hardcore now.” Mike and Ian nodded in agreement. 

“What if they’re not a hardcore band, hmm?” Josh said leaning forward in Matt’s direction, his eyebrows hiked high on his face. 

“Well they will be now,” Ian said as he crossed his arms and nodded at me with a comforting smile. 

“Ok, now I don’t feel so bad.” I told them letting out a nervous chuckle as I tried to laugh it off. It still bothered me on some level that my blood would be adorned on Arejay Hale’s pants during one of the biggest concerts of the summer. 

“Sure you listen to them when they tell you the pants are ok,” Cana teased while sticking her tongue out at me. 

“I will not dignify that with a response,” I told her with mockingly dismissive face before cracking a smile. 

“Ok!” Cana said clasping her hands together with a loud smacking noise and stared at the band. “Well, since you have decided to grace us with your presence an hour early we might as well get this over with. Because the sooner we get this done, the sooner I can get back to sleep. So, who wants to go first?” She stared wide eyed at them with an fake overly sweet smile on her face until one of them suggested themselves.

Josh’s hand flew up. He waved it back and fourth excitedly while hopping up and down muttering, “Oh, oh, oh. Pick me! Pick me!” At seeing him the guys started to chuckle. Mike even covered his face for a minute. Before I knew it I was chuckling too. Maybe it was more because Cana was heavily dissatisfied with this. 

“Would anyone else like to go first?” she said looking at the other three. They all shook their heads no. 

Cana turned back to me and looked at me with an irritated look. “Don’t look at me. You’re the one who asked. I’m not taking him.”

Sighing heavily she turned back to him and said, “Fine. Come on,” before turning and heading to the back rooms where we did all the measuring, not waiting for Josh to catch up.


	3. Chapter 2

Cana's POV:

I usually wasn't this feisty so early in the morning, but what would one expect when an immature man barges in and disturbs my precious sleep? Veronica had done nothing to help me. She basically said I had dug my own grave when I asked who wanted to go first. She's such a good friend. 

I walked down the corridor and into the back room on the right. I turned on the lights and grabbed my measuring tape and unrolled it. The man walked into the room and looked around. 

He walked over to one of the cracked windows in the corner and said, "Nice place."

"It's not really ours. We're renting it for the Rotten Apple prep." I picked up my notebook and turned to a blank page. I looked up at him to find him staring at me with his arms crossed. I waved my hand impatiently, "What?" A small smirk formed on his face. I rolled my eyes, "I'm assuming, since you have been asked to play at this festival, that your band is obviously big enough to have had wardrobe fittings before." I looked him up and down, trying to emphasize what I meant. 

Yes, it was awkward. Yes, it was stupid to be awkward about. To get an accurate fitting, the person in question has to be, well, basically naked. There was no way I was going to ask him to take his clothes off. I could already tell what kind of person he was, and I didn't need to provoke him anymore than he already was. 

He finally understood what I was getting at as he started to slowly lift up his shirt as he mumbled, "Bow chicka wow wow." I turned away, half to prove that I was unimpressed and half to grab my pen from off the table. 

"So, what's your name?" I looked back at him. 

He threw his shirt onto the table and unbuttoned his pants, "Josh." And with a swift movement, dropped his pants to the ground as he asked, "And you are?"

I wrote his name and the name of his band at the top of the paper as I replied, "Cana."

"Cana?" He repeated as he stepped out of his pants, "What's a Cana?"

"Me," I sighed as I held my hand out. He looked me over for a second before handing me his pants. I folded them neatly and set them on the table next to his wadded up shirt. 

He laughed slightly, "Did your parents hate you?"

I turned around, "No, asshole. They were being creative."

"Ah!" He nodded his head. He threw his shoes across the room, leaving him standing in the middle of the room with his boxers and socks on. "So, how do you want me."

I held back a smile as I walked over to him and set my pad and pen on the table, "There is fine." 

He smiled as he said, "Okay." I stood to face him as I wrapped the measuring tape around his neck. I wrote the measurement down on the paper and looked up at him.

"Could you lift up your arms, please?" 

He sighed as he threw his arms out to the side and whined, "This is so hard."

I shook my head as I put my hands around his back to get the measurement of his upper chest. 

"So, how long have you all been in the business?" He asked, peeking down at me. 

I got the measurement of his lower waist as I replied, "About four years." I wrote down the numbers as I continued, "We do the wardrobe and hair and make up." 

"Let me guess," he smiled as I got the length of his arm, "your friend back there is not the sewer person, right?"

I laughed out loud at that comment, "That is correct."

I went back to my pad and pen as he dropped his arms as asked, "Who have you worked with?"

I shrugged, "A few bands here and there. The one that got us attention was Suffocating Silence. Mostly because of the work we did on their music video for Dead End."

I walked around behind him as he turned his head in my direction,"Seriously? That video was the shit! You all did that?"

I smiled - it was nice being appreciated, "The costumes were all me. The special effects make up was all Veronica."

He shook his head, "That make up for that suicide victim was badass."

I leaned around him playfully, "But the costumes were bitchin', right?"

He turned his head, showing me his smile, "Killer."

"Thought so," I nodded as I returned to my place. I had started to measure his shoulder width when he yelped, reacting to a cold chill. "What did I do?"

He took a few steps forward as he laughed, "Your hands are cold!"

I laughed, "Stop being a child."

I finally got the measurement as he scoffed sarcastically, "Don't tell me what to do." I wrote down the measurement as I walked back to face him and got down on my knees. He started to laugh. I glared up at him as he smirked, "I usually don't move this fast on a first date, but I love a girl who takes initiative." I rolled my eyes as I measured his thigh. "You do this to everyone?"

I measured the inside of his leg down to his ankle as I nodded, "Anyone who wants a well made pair of pants." I heard the door open behind me. I turned my head slightly to look at who it was to see Veronica looking between Josh and I. 

Josh threw his head back as he said, "Oh yeah, this is exactly what it looks like." Veronica grimaced as I glared up at Josh. I turned back around in time to see Veronica gently shut the door. 

I sighed as I stood up from the floor, "What the fuck did you say that for?" I met his eyes. A proud smirk was on his face as I grunted, "Uhg!" I spun around, throwing the measuring tape around my neck, as I hurried over to the door and opened it. "Veronica!"

She had almost made it back to the other back room. "Veronica!" I called after her.

"Veronica!" I heard Josh yell behind me, "Why did you have to barge in?" I turned around to see Josh following me out of the room in his boxers.

"Go away," I hissed as I ran over to the room. 

I heard him laugh as he called out again, "Veronica, your girl Cana's got some awesome techniques."

I burst into the room to see her on the floor in front of the bandmate with the mohawk. 

Josh popped his head in and smiled, "Hey, Mike! You getting some too?"

Mike put his hand to his forehead, "Oh, God."

Veronica turned to look up at me, "Whatever you do with our clients is your business. I just don't want to see it." I crossed my arms and glared at her. She shifted her gaze over at Josh, "Why did you scream? That's why I came in."

"Because he's a wuss."

"I'm not a wuss," Josh corrected, "her hands were cold, that's why I scr- well, now I didn't scream. I was just startled." I shook my head as Veronica smiled at him. 

"I'm sure you were just reeling from the infinite amount of pleasure, right?"

"Oh, no," Mike sighed, "there's two of them."

"Hey!" A voice from behind me whined, "What kind of party is this and why wasn't I invited?" I turned around to see the other two members of the band standing behind me and Josh.

"Alright," I said, determined to take control of the situation, "Josh, go back to the room."

"Yes, ma'am," he winked at me as he hopped out of the room. 

"And you two," I pointed to the other guys, who were laughing, "go back out and sit down."

The straight haired one muttered as they walked away, "We made the boss lady mad."

Uhg. I hated being the bad guy. 

I walked back to the room, watching the other two as they headed back towards the couch. I walked into the room to find Josh sitting on the table, still in his boxers. I sighed as I picked up my pen again and took my measuring tape off of my neck.

Josh let out a small laugh, "You get embarrassed kind of easily, don't you?"

I sighed, "What gave it away?"

He pointed at me, "That shade of pink does." I nodded as I took my last measurement around his ankle. "Uh, by the way, sorry about this morning. With the whole, you know, barging in and the...blood thing."

"It's okay," I smiled, "Sorry for yelling. It's just this whole thing has got me a little on edge."

He hopped off the table as I wrote down the last measurement. I put the tape measure around my neck again and looked up at him. He laughed, "You know, you're a lot shorter when you're not mad." 

I cocked my head, "Thanks."

"You're welcome," he bowed. 

I shook my head as I walked past him to the door, "You can put your clothes back on now."

I leaned against the wall by the door, looking at him as he held out his arms, "Isn't this the part where you take your clothes off?"

"Settle down, boy," I rolled my eyes as he put his pants on. 

He held his shirt in his hand as he walked up to me, and whispered, "Rawr." I smiled and stared down at the floor as he walked out. "It was nice to meet you, Cana," he called as he walked back out into the main corridor. 

"Yeah," I replied under my breath. I laughed slightly before walking out of the room, following Josh to call the next band mate into the back room, but I knew that it wouldn't be as half as entertaining as Josh's visit.


	4. Chapter 3

Veronica's POV:

I shook my head once everyone had left the room. Finally I could get these measurements finished up. Well that was if everyone and their mother actually decided not to come back in again. It was hard enough before just because I rarely had to help Cana with measurements. And now I had a bummed hand on top of it. Well this day was off to a lovely start. 

I glanced up at the man standing above me as I wrapped the tape around his ankle. Before all hell had broken loose, a.k.a. Josh screaming like a little girl, I found out his name was Mike. He apparently was the base player of the band which won him some brownie points. He also seemed really down to earth which helped considering I practically had to feel him up upon meeting him. 

“I’m sorry about all that,” I said moving the measuring tape to his other ankle after jotting the number down in my notebook. “Usually things around here aren’t that eventful.”

Chuckling he looked down at me. “It’s alright. You kind of get used to it when you have to live with Josh on a cramped bus the majority of the year,” he said while casually crossing his arms.

I draped the measuring tape over my shoulders before pushing off the ground to stand. Once I was on my feet I took the measuring tape from my neck and wrapped it around his. “Well thanks for the help then,” I said with my voice coated in playful sarcasm as I went about measuring the width of his neck.

He rolled his eyes in retribution though his lips formed into a smirk. “Well, in case you hadn’t noticed,” he said glancing down at his bare legs before moving them back up to meet mine, “I’m not wearing any pants.” 

“Well, that didn’t stop your bandmate,” I said referring to Josh. 

“Not all of us are as free with our bodies as Josh is.”

“Well you could be. It’s not like you have a bad body or anything.” 

He hadn’t been expecting my statement. I could see that easily on his face. A mix of shock and confusion. Maybe even a little bit of embarrassment too. Though he did try to conceal it by looking away from me. 

“I...I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to weird you out or anything...I...I should just stop talking...” I rambled on before looking down flustered. I really shouldn’t be allowed to talk when I’m half asleep because I would just say the first thing that came to mind. Even if it happened to be an inappropriate comment to a client. 

“No...No,” he instantly started to reassure me as he turned to face me again. I glanced back up with pink cheeks. “I guess I just wasn’t expecting it, that’s all.”

Now it was my turn to look away awkwardly. I stayed silent trying to figure out something to say but I was afraid that my mouth would betray me again. But then I felt the soft brush of fingers against my arm which knocked me out of my mental trance. 

“Really,” Mike said sincerely as I found myself meeting his gaze again. “It’s ok. Don’t worry about about it. Because I can see you worrying about it.” He smiled softly but didn’t rush his movements as if to not startle a frightened animal. 

I bit my lip before smiling back. “Am I really that easy to read?”

“Hm, I’m not sure yet. In that instance you were. But that line you threw at Josh I wasn’t expecting. Like at all.” 

He appeared amused by this seemingly bi-polarity on my part. How I apparently went from making a vulgar joke to Josh to blushing like a school girl because of a small comment I had made to Mike was beyond me. 

“So, is that a good or bad thing?” I asked as I tugged on one side of the measuring tape so I could gather it in my hands.

He leaned back on the balls of his feet, teetering while he took a moment to think. “Well, It definitely keeps things interesting. In this band we get bored easily, as you saw earlier.” he concluded with a laugh. “So yeah, I would say it’s a good thing.”

I grinned as I continued to stare at him before taking a step back. “You can uh...put your clothes back on now,” I said before dropping down to pick my notebook up so I could write the final measurement down. 

Placing the notebook on the counter I turned around to see that he had already had his pants on and was in the process of pulling his shirt over his head. “Wait, Wait.” I called as I hurried over to him. 

He stood there frozen with his hands above his head and the shirt covering pretty much his whole head. “Umm...” I heard him muffle from under the fabric. 

“Just one second.” I grabbed the neck of his shirt and maneuvered it around his head. Soon enough his head popped through and he looked at me with another confused look. “You were going to mess up your hair.”

“Oh,” he said with a small laugh before tugging on the spikes to make sure that they were all in tact. “Thanks.”

“I’ll walk you out,” I said while pulling the door open for him to exit. 

But he grabbed the edge of the door once it was opened far enough to get out and motioned for me to exit. “You can go ahead.”

So I ducked under his arm and proceeded out the door. “Thank you,” I muttered softly. Apparently he was a gentleman too. 

I lead us out to the main room again to see that only Josh and the one who, if I recalled correctly, was named Matt were taking up one of the couches. Cana must’ve taken the curly haired one back to get measured. 

“Hey, how was it?” Josh spoke throwing a look to Mike as we emerged. “You guys did take awfully long back there...” He trailed before taking a sip of the Coke Zero he was nursing. 

“It went fine,” Mike said trying to dismiss his friends comments. But it would apparently take more than that then to keep Josh Ramsay’s raunchy comments at bay. 

“Just fine, huh?” he said looking over at me. “Well, mine was phenomenal, if I do say so myself,” he said a bit theatrically. “You might have to up your game.”

Matt shook his head stifling a laugh. Mike on the other hand leaned over an said, “Sorry about him.” Even though he was smirking. 

“It’s ok,” I whispered back before turning back to the singer. “He probably said it was ‘just fine’ because he’s to worn out to say anything else.” I smirked triumphantly as I crossed my arms.

There was a collective “Oh,” from Matt and Mike that settled over the room.

Josh though threw his head back and laughed heartily. “Well played Milady,” he said giving a bow the best he could from his seat.

“Thanks,” I said giving a slightly cocky look. “Where did you get that?” I asked, nodding to the soda that Josh was sipping.

“That fridge over there,” he said glancing past me to the mini fridge that Cana and I kept for late night snacks. 

“Cana’s going to kill you.” I drew out the words as I said them.

“Who am I going to kill?” I heard Cana yell from the back. I didn’t realize I had said it that loud. 

“Oh God, let’s go,” I said motioning for Matt to get up. “I’ve seen enough bloodshed this morning.”

“Veronica!” I heard her yell after a moment of me not answering. But thankfully Matt was up and had rounded the couch to where I was standing. I grabbed his arm and tugged him along as I hastily made my way back to the room. 

Once we were inside I locked the door just in case. Hulk Cana was something to shelter yourself from if possible. And I had a feeling that Josh was about to get a whole lot of green anger. 

“Was locking the door necessary?” Matt asked in drawn out nervousness.

“Trust me. It was.” I could hear some incoherent fighting. Cana’s voice was apparent and what I assumed to be Josh yelling for help. It couldn’t be that bad if his other two bandmates weren’t helping, right?

I turned back around to see Matt staring oddly at the door. Probably listening to Josh’s screams of terror. Once our eyes met though we both burst out laughing. The whole situation at this point just seemed utterly ridiculous. Well, because I suppose it was. 

“Is she normally that violent?” Matt asked once he was breathing normally again.

I shook my head. “Nope,” I answered as my chuckling started to die out. “I think your singer just awakens a certain form of rage in her.” 

“That’s Josh for you,” he said flashing a smile that was awkwardly charming. “Oh, I’m Matt by the way. Matt Webb,” he introduced as he held out his hand for me to shake. Maybe awkwardly charming was the best way to describe him overall. I looked him over as I took his hand. The way he looked was teenage heartthrob worthy but the way he spoke made him seem like he played a lot of D&D in his basement as an adolescent. It was definetly an interesting combination. 

“Veronica. Nice to meet you,” I told him while shaking his hand. We both let go and I went about gathering my notebook once more. “I’m going to need you to...ah...” I was so horrible at this. Scientists really needed to start working on Canapus and soon. 

“Disrobe?” he said using some form of fake sauciness. 

“Um...Sure...If that’s what you want to call it,” I said trying not to full on laugh at the face he had been making. 

So, he started to strip down. I flipped to the next page in my notebook so I wouldn’t feel creepy by just watching him. On the page I drew the outline of a male figure that I liked to use when I did measurements. I was more visual anyway. And it was just more entertaining too. 

“That looks nothing like me.” I jumped slightly as I heard the voice from beside me. I turned to my right to see a half naked Matt looking over my shoulder at my doodle man. “Where’s the amazing physique?” he said motioning down at his body. “The charming smile? How will you know it’s me?” 

I could tell he was joking. Even if the rest of the band had acted completely serious you could see the playfulness on his face as he spoke. 

I bit back more laughter. “Here,” I said handing him the notebook and pencil. “Fix it then.”

He took the writing implements out of my hands and said, “Fine, I will.” And for a split moment the fake anger was gone and was replaced by...flirtiness? It was kind of hard to tell with this hodgepodge of a man. 

After a minute he handed it back to me. He had drawn a sixteen pack on the figures abdomen, a protruding muscles out of each arm, a smile, what I believed he intended to be glistening eyes, and some shaggy hair. 

I rolled my eyes at the image before holding it up so I could see them side by side. 

“So, how’d I do?” he said while ‘casually’ flexing his muscles into poses. 

“Oh the resemblance is striking. Why are you a musician? You should become an artist,” I played along. 

“I know, right.” 

“Alright Picasso, we should be getting started on this before Cana breaks up your band by killing Josh. That’s his name right? Josh?”

“Yup. The one who was missing when you came out was Ian. And you probably know Mike because he was just in here,” he said while his eyes darted around while he spoke making it seem as if he were in thought. Whether he was or not I wasn’t sure. 

He stayed relatively quite the first couple of minutes as I went about measuring his arms, wrists, neck and abdomen. But it was while I was measuring his waist that he spoke up again. “So...” he said drawing it out, adding a short cough to the end. “You ‘love us’?” 

Damn it. Cana was so going to die when I finished this. “I like your music,” was my only reply before I wrote down the width of his waist. Dropping down to a crouch I started to measure the outside of his leg. 

“But you didn’t know anything about us?” he asked while eying me skeptically.

“I’ve been busy,” I defended shyly while looking up at him biting my lip.

“For six years?!” he stared down at me baffled.

“Yup,” I said innocently before going back to measuring his leg. 

He rolled his eyes playfully at my unwillingness to give him more information than that. “So, what have you been doing all this time then?” 

“Um...” I said pretending to think about it for a second. “College, working, living life. All that good stuff,” I counted on my fingers to play it up a bit more. 

“Oh, yeah. Me too. No big deal.” Apparently that was the only thing he could think of to say. 

“No big deal,s huh?” I said with a smirk. This man really couldn’t be serious. “Nothing interesting worth sharing ever come up on your radar?” 

“Nope. I lead a relatively boring life. Just sit around all day eating potato chips and trying to realize my dream of becoming a ventriloquist,” Matt explained with a shrug. 

“Alrighty then,” I said while chuckling under my breath and shaking my head.

I finished the rest of the measurements in little time, surprisingly. “Ok,” I said getting to my feet. “I think we are finally finished.” I put my notebook back on the counter and stretched my arms out wide with a sigh. I checked the clock sitting on the counter. I loathed watches. It was a little bit after 10. Maybe I could get some sleep soon. Probably not. We still had to go get the sewing machine fixed. Hopefully Cana had already talked to eccentric Josh about what they wanted these costumes to look like too. Oh my God, there was just too many factors in the equation that was this day. 

“I’m guessing that means I can get dressed again?” 

“Yes,” I confirmed.

As he went about getting redressed again I leaned back against the counter behind me and crossed my arms. I didn’t have anything else to do so I watched him as he went about getting dressed. Well, I tried not to but it was hard to when he was the only moving thing in the room. And his body was pretty nice too.

“I meant to say sorry,” he said as he tried to find the correct notch on his belt. 

I looked up awkwardly like a kid getting caught in their hand in a cookie jar. “Huh?”

“Well...I guess it was my fault that you got hurt. I had dared Josh to burst in through the door and say something ridiculous,” he chuckled. “I didn’t think you would get hurt though...”

“Oh...” I said, my face turning a slight pink color. Well, I hadn’t been expecting that. “Oh, it’s ok. It will heal. It just more...frightened me,” I laughed nervously. 

“I just feel bad. Even if it was technically half Josh’s fault.” 

I smiled. “Really it’s cool.” I stopped though when I realized that there was no noise coming from the main room. “We should get out there. I don’t hear anything and that could mean you’re the only surviving member of Marianas Trench.” 

We both laughed again as we caught each other’s gaze one final time before I opened the door.


	5. Chapter 4

Cana’s POV:

I threw my measuring tape around my neck as Ian got dressed. I wasn’t too surprised that his fitting had gone smoothly. One of the quickest I’ve ever done, actually. Small conversation here and there, but uneventful. 

“I swear, you are one of the most normal people I’ve met,” I smiled as I wrote down the final measurement.

Ian hesitated with his shirt in his hands, “You obviously haven’t met very many people then.”

I laughed as I corrected, “Well, then you’re the most normal one out of your band.”

He chuckled, “Well, in Matt and Mike’s defense, you’ve only experienced Josh.”

“His first impression was so large I think it started to spread.” 

Ian nodded as he put his shirt on, “That’s Josh for you.” I pulled the measuring tape off my neck and wrapped it around my hand. “But it’s more like you said. His first impression is the loudest thing. You get used to him after a while.”

I scoffed, “I’m sure.”

I put my measuring tape on the table as I heard Veronica’s voice from out in the main room, “Cana’s going to kill you.”

Ian and I shared a look of concern as I shouted back, “Who am I going to kill?” And then added under my breath, “And why do I feel like it’s Josh?” After a moment of silence, Ian shrugged his shoulders. I walked over to the door, “Veronica!” I opened the door in time to see her back room door close. I heard the faint click of the lock. That wasn’t good. I threw my head in the direction of the main room. Who was going to die?

“Come on,” I told Ian as I stalked out of the room. I could tell he was a bit hesitant, but I heard him follow behind me. I rounded the corner and looked in to see Mike and Josh on opposite sides of the couch.

“What was Ver-” I started, but then I saw a can of Coke Zero in Josh's hand. I pointed at him, “I can assume that you did not get that from the little fridge over there, correct?”

Josh shook his head, “Nope,” and took another sip. I saw Mike shift in his seat, keeping his eyes on the floor.

I walked over to confront Josh, stopping right in front of him. I glared down at him on the couch, “Are you sure?”

He smirked, “I have a feeling you’re about to grow a foot or two.” 

That smirk. That arrogant smirk of oh, I’ve just one up-ed you, what are you gonna do about it just had a way of setting me off. I smacked the drink out of his hand, making the drink spew all over Mike and the couch. My sudden movement made Josh shriek, as Mike started to laugh at our commotion, even though he was now soaking wet with soda. Josh collected himself and started to laugh as he jumped over the arm of the couch. 

I grabbed the back of his shirt as he whipped around and grabbed my arm, “Take it easy, dwarfy!” 

I ripped my arm away from him, "Don't touch me," and then added as I pointed at him, "or my Coke Zero!"

"Damn, girl!" Ian stated as he sat down on the "safe" couch. 

"I just think it's funny," Mike smiled. "Josh would've reacted the exact same way."

I looked over at him, "Sorry. I should've warned you you were in the splash zone."

"I have an extra shirt in the van. It's no problem," he assured me.

"It was just one Coke," Josh muttered, bringing my attention back to him.

I rolled my eyes, "It's not just the Coke, it's what the Coke symbolizes."

"And what is that?" he scoffed tugging on his shirt.

"Joy and happiness," I replied. "All the things that you destroy." That set Mike and Ian off on another laughing spell. Josh stuck his tongue out and walked over to the couch Ian was on and sat down with his arms crossed.

I stooped down and picked up the mutilated Coke Zero can by Mike's feet, smiled apologetically again, and walked it over to the trash can that was at our sewing table. The sewing machine caught my eye as I stood back up. 

"Shit," I muttered to myself.

"What?" Mike asked.

I walked around to the machine, "I forgot the sewing machine committed suicide last night." I turned it on as it growled at me, "I have to get this fixed today."

All of a sudden, Veronica and Matt emerged from the doorway. 

I looked over at them suspiciously, "Yes?"

"We didn't hear anything," Veronica whispered. "I thought you had turned green and killed people."

"Almost," I mumbled, throwing a look at Josh, who replied by playfully scoffing at me. 

"False alarm then," Matt shrugged as he walked over to Mike and hesitated. "What happened to your shirt, man?"

"A wild Cana appeared," he smiled. 

"Oh," Matt nodded, "I just thought you had a wet t-shirt contest without me. I was about to be disappointed."

I looked over at Veronica, "We have to get the machine fixed today."

"No shit," she agreed. "How?"

"We need to go to the store by the strip mall. It's a half an hour away, but it's the only one that will repair it quickly."

"How?" she repeated.

I cocked my head, "What do you mean "how"? We'll drive."

"You mean, drive our rental car?" Veronica crossed her arms, "The car whose battery died yesterday?"

I put my hand to my forehead, "God." I sat down on the stool beside me, "We could call a taxi? Granted that'd be an expensive taxi, but-"

"We could give you a ride," Ian offered. Veronica and I looked over at him. As did Josh. "We've got nothing else to do today. We could take you."

"They're grown women," Josh said, "they can hitchhike." 

"Are you serious?" I asked Ian, ignoring Josh's comment. "You would do that?"

"Sure," Matt chimed in.

"Don't we get to vote on the issue?" Josh outburst, flailing his arms. 

"We don't need to take a vote, because they're already going to come with us," Mike replied standing up.  "You're making us clothes. The least we could do is help you."

I looked at Veronica. I wasn't really a fan of mooching off people, especially right after meeting said people, who were also clients, but I really wanted to take them up on this offer. This was going to be the cheapest way to get our sewing machine fixed, which really needed to happen because now we were behind. And Lord knows, I did not want any more blood on articles of clothing. Veronica shrugged as a reply. She was going to make me choose. Typical. 

"We'd really appreciate it," I said as I looked around the room. 

"If you don't mind," Veronica added. 

Ian shrugged as he stood from the couch, "Not a problem." He took keys out from his pocket and looked at Josh, as if to say come on now. 

Matt walked over to me and pointed at the sewing machine, "You want me to carry it out for you?"

"Sure," I smiled as I reached down and unplugged it. He picked up the machine as I wrapped up the cord and placed it on top of it. 

"Let's head out then," Matt announced as he walked to the door. I walked over to the door and picked up my keys. Veronica followed Matt out of the warehouse as Mike and Ian grabbed their things. Josh shot up from the couch and started for the door. 

I fidgeted with my keys as he passed by me, whispering, "I thought we were musicians, not taxi drivers." I looked up when Josh stepped outside and caught his eye. As he disappeared from view, I saw a smirk form on his face. He thought he was so charming.

"Make sure you have everything," I told Mike and Ian. "I'm going to lock up."

As they scurried out of the warehouse, I closed the door behind us and locked the building. I don't really know why anyone would want to steal clothes, but I felt better knowing that it was secure. 

I followed Ian and Mike down the stairs and around the building to find their van. Quite literally a van. The kind of van you could paint "free ice cream" on the side and steal little children with. Matt had the back of the van open as he put the sewing machine down. Ian got in the drivers seat as Mike walked to the passenger side door and grabbed a light tshirt. He changed out of his Coke stained clothes as I looked in the very back seat to see Veronica sitting there. I was about to climb into the back with her when Josh cut me off and took the seat beside her. I shot a look at her as she shrugged. I shook my head and got into the empty row and buckled my seat belt. 

"So, where are we headed?" Ian asked as he started the van. 

"It's called Thimbles. I don't know the exact address, but I can tell you how to get there," I replied as Matt shut the trunk and walked around to the door. Matt climbed in as I shook my head, "I never really understood why it was called "Thimbles" though. If you're sewing on a sewing machine, you wouldn't need a thimble."

"Cana," Veronica sighed as Mike laughed from the front seat, "just tell the man how to get there."

Matt situated himself beside me as he closed the door as I asked, "Who else is going to ask these deep philosophical questions?" 

"Ghandi," Veronica replied exasperated, "give the man directions."

I rolled my eyes as I pointed, "Down this street, turn left on Seventh and get onto the highway." 

"So," Matt looked over at me as Ian put the car in motion, "how'd it break?"

Veronica laughed behind me, "That sounds like a really cheesy pick-up line." 

I ignored her and continued, "Long story short, Veronica set up a seam the wrong way and the needle caught a pin and not only broke off the needle, but also pushed the pin inside the machine, hence the nasty noise it's making."

"Stop blaming me for that," Veronica hit me on the head. "I set it up the way you told me to. It was a one in a million chance." 

"You were the one operating the machine," I smiled. 

She sighed, "I just want to go back to doing make up. I don't like this sewing shit."

"So, you're not a sewing person?" Mike asked turning around in his seat.

"A seamstress?" I corrected.

"No, I'm not," Veronica chuckled. "I'm the "Made Up" portion in "Sew Made Up"." 

"How'd you all come together in the first place?" Matt asked.

"They met in college," Josh chimed in. Matt turned around to look at him as he shrugged, "Cana told me." Matt looked over at me before Josh started up again, "They did the costumes and make up for the Suffocating Silence's music video for "Dead End"."

"For real?" Mike gaped. I nodded as a response. 

Ian turned onto the highway as he asked, "How long do I take this for?"

"Till exit 46," I replied. "It should take about twenty minutes."

"Have you all always been into sewing and make up?" Matt asked as he checked his phone.

I looked at him and hesitated for a moment, but then Veronica spoke up, "Yeah, pretty much. I mean, we met while doing the costumes and make up for one of the theatre productions."

"That's cool," Matt said. "Josh and I met in high school."

"Because we were in band and choir," Josh laughed.

"Because we were that cool," Matt added. 

I looked at Matt and Mike, who was still turned around, as I asked, "How did you all become a band?"

"Matt and I met in high school," Josh reiterated in a condescending manner, "we found Ian through an ad in the paper, and Mike was his bass playing roomie." 

"And then we found fans who "love us" and got to the point we're at now," Matt chortled. I heard Veronica mutter a "fuck you" under her breath as Matt continued, "We like it so far." 

"Did you have to take time off of a tour to do the Rotten Apple?" I asked. 

Mike shook his head, "Nah."

"We're about to set up for a tour we're planning on going on in a few months. Tickets are already on sale and we're trying to get all of our shit together," Ian chimed in. 

"That's cool," Veronica said. "Is it to promote Ever After?" 

Matt turned around in his seat to look at her, "Do you "love" our new album too?"

"Blow me," she scoffed. "I fucking hate you already." Matt laughed as a response. 

"Damn," Josh groaned, "what happened when you all were in the back room?"

I turned around to look between Josh and Veronica as she said, "Nothing near as eventful as what happened between you and Cana."

Josh laughed as I hit her arm, "You suck."

"So do you, apparently," Veronica smiled. The whole van erupted in laughter. I was used to this. Veronica had always been good at witty quips in conversation, especially when I set up the joke for her. I turned back around in my seat to face the front of the van as I sighed. I felt Veronica pat the top of my head, which was her way of saying "poor Cana". Yes, yes, poor me.

Mike turned on the radio, for background noise and to pass the time. As a group, we all lightly tried to sing the "top twenty hits of today" as we barreled down the highway. Matt and Josh attempted more small talk about me and Veronica and how we got our start. Eventually we made it to the exit and I guided Ian to Thimbles.

"This is in the middle of nowhere," Josh commented.

"Well, they're the fastest sewing machine repair shop. They're worth the drive," I replied looking down at my phone. I had a missed call from Carter, the man in charge of organizing every aspect of the Rotten Apple. He probably wanted to know how the costumes were coming. My voicemail would pretty much answer that, considering my message quite literally says, "I didn't answer my phone because I'm working my ass off on costumes. Leave a message and I'll get back to you eventually." That may have been why he didn't leave a message. 

"Who was that?" Veronica asked. She had been looking over my shoulder, but had apparently only saw the "one missed call" notification.

"Carter," I replied.

"Who's Carter?" Matt laughed as he added, "Your boyfriend?"

I gagged, "Carter is my forty-three year old boss."

"Oh," Ian chimed in, "so you're into mature men?" I shook my head as everyone laughed. Apparently this was everybody-hate-on-Cana day.

"Gross," I sighed as Ian pulled into the parking lot for Thimbles. The Green Tree strip mall was bustling today, even though it was out in the middle of nowhere. 

"What did he want?" Veronica continued with the conversation as Ian parked the car.

"He probably wanted to know how we were fairing," I laughed. "I'm glad he didn't leave a message. I didn't want to have to tell him our machine is broken." 

"But it's about to be fixed," She replied. 

Matt opened the side door as I sighed, "I hope so." I hopped out behind Matt and followed him around to the back of the van. He opened the trunk and grabbed the sewing machine.

"You sure you don't want me to take it?" I asked him.

"Let me be the man, okay?" He whined as he walked past me. I shook my head as I closed the trunk and rounded the corner of the van. Veronica looked over at me as I ushered her towards the store. She went ahead and held the door open for Matt.

"Thank you," he smiled at her.

I laughed, "I thought you wanted to be the man. Shouldn't you be holding the door for the women?"

"I can't do everything! I don't have that kind of power," Matt cried out. 

"Let the man do his job, okay ladies?" Josh commanded. 

I followed Matt inside the store as the rest of the gang trailed behind us. I pointed Matt to the customer service table so he could set the sewing machine down. He placed it on the counter as I rang the bell for service. 

"Comin'," a voice called in a Jersey accent. We were really close to the border. A woman who looked to be in her fifties turned the corner, "Can I help ya, hun?"

"I need my sewing machine fixed," I replied, but added, "as soon as possible. Like today, preferably." 

She looked me over as she took the cord of the sewing machine, "And what's wrong with it?" 

"It growls at you," Matt stated. 

She looked at him, before turning back to me, "Did he break it?"

"No," I smiled as I threw my head back in Veronica's direction, "my co-worker did." I heard her mumble something about it not being her fault, but I continued, "I'm pretty sure there's a pin stuck inside. She was pinning the fabric horizontally instead of-"

"Instead of vertically," the woman finished with a nod as she grabbed a spare square of fabric and turned my machine on. It whirred as she placed the fabric down and lowered the foot. She urged the machine forward, but it answered with a loud groan as the gears tried to spin, to no avail. 

She looked up at me and I nodded, "Yeah."

She sighed, "Well, it'd definitely an easy - and a quick - fix, however there's another machine in front of you right now. It'll be about an hour until that's done, but then your fix will be simple. Can you hold out that long?" 

"Definitely," I answered as I wrote down my cell number. "My co-worker and I will come when you call."

"Thanks, hun. We'll get it fixed for ya," she smiled as she took my machine into the back. 

I turned to Veronica and sighed, "Well, at least we're getting it fixed." I turned to Ian and Matt, "You guys can head out. V and I can catch a cab back."

"Nah," Ian shook his head, "we'll wait for you."

"I'm sure you have better things to do," Veronica replied as she crossed her arms.

"You that eager to get rid of us?" Matt smiled, "Besides, we told you all we had nothing else to do today."

"Isn't there a strip mall across the way?" Mike pointed out the door, "We could peruse there for an hour."

"Sounds good," I agreed as my phone rang in my hand. It was Carter again. I had to take it. 

I walked past everyone and out the door as I pressed the answer button, "Hello?"

"Hello, Cana?" Carter asked, "It's Carter."

"Yeah, I know," I replied as I balanced on the edge of the sidewalk.

"You making good progress?" He asked.

"Yeah," I nodded. "We just finished getting the measurements for Marianas Trench and Ghost Town is coming in later today."

"But the making of the costumes is coming along?" Carter was such a hard ass.

"Yessir," I assured him. I heard the door to the store open behind me as I continued, "We just finished up all of Halestorm last night, so we're only a band or two behind, so it's not too bad."

"Just keep on it," Carter instructed.

"I know, sir. We're doing-"

My phone was ripped from my hand as I heard, "Carter, baby! What's happening?" I spun around to see Josh walking away with my phone.

"Josh!" I called after him. 

"Oh, no. We're just out for a day trip," he flailed his arms around, gesturing at the scenery. I started walking over to him as he stopped and looked down at the phone, "It's Josh from Marianas Trench!" 

I held my hand out like a mother scolding a child, "Give me the phone."

He looked at me as a smile crept onto his face, "Nah, me and the guys gave them a ride to get their sewing machine fixed."

The man had said too much. I lunged forward to grab my phone, but he spun out of my reach. 

Laughing, he continued to talk, "No, no. Everything's fine."

"It'll be fine when you've surrendered my phone!" I fussed, following him closely.

He turned around to face me, startling me in the process, as he got really close to my face and put his hand over the receiver, "Ma'am, you are interrupting my conversation with Mr. Carter. That is very rude."

I grabbed his shirt and reached for my phone, "Give it to me!"

He laughed as he held the phone out of my reach, his free hand around my wrist, "Well, removing my shirt would be a step in that process, but I believe we are moving too fast." 

I pushed him away, ripping my arm free, as I growled, "Fuck you!"

"I gotta go, Carter baby," Josh sighed with a smile, and added, "I have to deal with a hobbit." He pressed the end button and looked down at my phone.

I ran over to him, as his arms went immediately above his head with my phone, "Okay, you've been a bitch long enough. Hand it over."

"I'm not done yet," he grinned as his fingers were flying on my screen.

I looked behind me to try and find backup support. The rest of his bandmates were all standing against the wall with Veronica in between Matt and Mike, not showing any signs of sympathy or concern. Thanks, friend. I turned back around to Josh to find that he had walked a few yards away in the direction of the strip mall. 

"We're not in middle school, Joshua," I called as I jogged in his direction.

He did a double take and started to laugh as he picked up the pace of his step, "Then don't chase me."

I didn't slow down as he began to transition into a jog as well, "I won't chase you if you give me my phone back." 

I saw him lock my phone as he turned to face me, jogging backwards, as he held it out. "Want it?"

He was dead. 

I charged him, which obviously took him by surprise. He hadn't expected me to go into a full run. He turned back around and tried to out run me, and with him being a giant, it wasn't hard for him to put some distance between us. I heard him laughing ahead of me, which pissed me off even more. We were almost to the strip mall when he slowed and purposefully teased me with my phone by holding it out and switching it between hands.

"Josh, give it back to her," I heard a voice behind me. I turned to see Matt and Ian jogging over to us as Veronica and Mike were walking slowly in our direction.

"Aw, come on man!" Josh whined, "Don't tell me you're taking her side."

"I'm taking her side so we don't lose a band mate," Matt replied as he snapped his fingers at Josh. 

He scoffed as I walked over to him, "You only get the pity because you're a girl." 

"I can live with that," I replied as I took my phone out of his hand. I unlocked it briefly to check if it was still in English. Nothing seemed out of place, but I had a feeling Josh had done something.

"Why do you have to scare off all the new people we meet?" Ian laughed as he walked over to Josh.

"So I'm a little high maintenance," Josh whined in a valley girl accent, "big deal?" I shook my head as Matt approached me. 

I looked up at him, "I would pull an "independent female" card and say, "I can take care of myself," but-"

"But you won't," he smiled.

"Yeah," I replied as I put my phone into my back pocket. "Thanks." 

"I seeth a music store on the horizon!" Josh pointed down a few stores into the strip mall. "Come, companions! Onward!" He took ahold of Ian's hand and started pulling him towards the store. Ian slid his hand out of Josh's awkwardly as Matt and I started to laugh. Josh just continued his march towards the music store. 

"I feel bad for you," I said as I caught up to where Ian was. "You have to babysit and you don't even get paid for it."

He rolled his eyes, "That's the price we pay for accepting his friendship." Matt nodded in agreement as he walked along the other side of me. We were following Josh's general direction when I turned around. Veronica and Mike were still walking slowly behind us, lost in their conversation. I turned back around. She'd be fine.

"I hope Josh didn't mess up anything for you," Matt said as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "He has that rare ability to shove both feet into his mouth at once and still remain standing."

"So, you're saying he has the ability to do stupid things and not feel any remorse?" 

Ian laughed as he nodded while Matt smiled and said, "Yes."

"And it's fine," I replied. "Carter's just kind of an ass, and since V and I are new to this huge of an event, he's been breathing down my neck." I shrugged, "Josh just probably made it a little worse. Aw well."

"I'm sure you're doing a good job, what with making things hardcore with blood and all," Matt joked.

I looked up and him, and scoffed with a smile, "Shut up." 

Josh ran into the shop, the bell on top of the door swinging wildly by his urgency. It had been a while since I had been in a music store. In a way I had missed it. Music had always been a huge part of my life, which is why I was really happy I was in this industry. Ian held the door open for Matt and I as we stepped into the store. Josh had gravitated to the rows of guitars in the back of the room. Ian turned directly to the drum kit, leaving me and Matt right in front of the door. 

"What do you play?" I asked Matt as I walked over to one of the electric pianos.

"I play guitar. So does Josh, along with many other things," Matt replied as he followed behind me. "Ian plays drums, obviously, and Mike plays bass. And we all sing." I ran my fingers over the plastic keys. Matt pointed at the piano, "Do you play?"

"No," I answered quickly, then added, "not really." I shook my head, "I used to. It's been a while." I followed Matt's influence and shoved my hands in my pockets and looked at him, "So, do you like food?" He smiled at me as I continued, "I haven't eaten anything since seven last night."

"Yes, I like food," Matt replied, "and I'm hungry too. Once we wrangle Josh, we'll go on the search for food."

"Sounds good," I nodded as I walked further into the store, glancing at Josh as he admired an elaborately decorated acoustic guitar. I had always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. I noticed the look in his eye as he held the instrument gently in his hands; a look of awe. I used to know that look all too well. Josh turned his head, making eye contact with me briefly before I looked away. He called Matt over to him to admire the guitar with him. 

I leaned against the wall, crossed my arms and scanned the shop. I was hanging out in a music store with three members of a famous band outside of New York City. Even with the jobs Veronica and I had had so far, I never really thought I would be doing this. I wonder if I'll ever get used to it? 


	6. Chapter 5

Veronica's POV:

I watched Cana as she slipped out of the shop, her phone buzzing in her hand. I sighed mentally while looking at the four men in front of me. I could already feel the social awkwardness crawling under my skin. I was fine when I was with one, the occasional two people I didn’t know. But four...Well that was another story. I usually allowed Cana to take the lead when it came to new clients or acquaintances until I got to know them better. But at the moment I was left to fend for myself. 

“Um,” I muttered as my eyes darted over each one of them. It didn’t help that they all seemed to tower over my 5’4 frame “I am going to look around for a few minutes if you don’t mind waiting?” I said pointing further back into the shop. Rummaging around Thimbles would at least buy me a few minutes before I had to have full on interaction with any of them. 

“Sure,” Ian said.

“Take your time. Like we said, we have all day,” Mike assured with a smile.

I found myself smiling back at him before breathing out a soft, “Ok,” before I went to take a look around the store. 

I had come here once with Cana before. It was right after we had arrived in New York and settled into the warehouse. We had needed an extra supply of thread, pins, and other things that Cana claimed to be essential to costume making. After working with her after all these years I just trusted that she had needed them rather than asking what they were for. 

I finally reached the back where a display of different colored threads lined the walls when I heard the bell on the edge of the door ring signaling that someone was either entering or exiting the store. I glanced at the door just in time to see Josh make his way outside. His bandmates were lingering near the door, not sure if they should follow him or wait for me. 

Now I just felt rushed. So I turned back to the wall of thread and examined it fast. I picked out a couple shades of red and blue as well as three blacks. They were the colors we had been using the most for these costumes so I figured that it wouldn’t help to have a few extras on hand. 

As I went to head to the counter though I bumped into Matt. To my surprise he had been standing behind me. 

“Oh, sorry,” I said dropping the maroon thread, slightly startled by his sudden presence. 

“No it was my fault,” Matt quickly took the blame as he bent down to pick up the thread I had dropped. “Sorry,” he said with a smile while he added it back to the pile in my hand.

“Thanks,” I replied while trying to balance the spool amongst the others as I proceeded to the front of the store to pay. When I finally made it there I dropped all of the spools on the counter in front of the woman who had spoken to us about our sewing machine being fixed. With a smile she began to ring up my purchase. 

Matt had followed me over and had been leaning against the counter, waiting for the transaction to be over. “Sorry about the sudden stalking but we didn’t know what to do about Cana and Josh...” He said once the woman put my receipt in the bag. 

I had been putting my change in my wallet when he said it. I turned and stared blankly at him for a moment. “What about Cana and Josh?” I asked hesitantly, finally taking the bag from the woman and muttering a thank you.

Next thing I knew Matt was directing me toward the large window left of the door which just happened to have a perfect view of Cana and Josh fighting over Cana’s phone. She was pushed up on her tip toes yelling at Josh with her arms outstretched to reclaim the device from him.

I glanced to my right, the side that Ian and Mike were on, and made eye contact with Ian who was chuckling at the sight. He smirked when he met my gaze and gave a small shrug. 

Smiling, I rolled my eyes in response before heading toward the door. “Come on, if we’re going to watch the show we might as well get better seats.”

I could hear each of them chuckle under their breaths at my comment before following me to the door. Ian was closest so he held it open while the rest of us filed out. Neither Cana nor Josh noticed that we had come outside so I leaned against the exterior of the store. Mike passed in front of me to stand on the far side with his arms lazily crossed across his chest. Matt slipped into the empty space beside me and Ian beside him. And we just watched as my friend and their bandmate fought.

“Okay, you’ve been a bitch long enough. Hand it over,” Cana bellowed. 

“I’m not done yet,” Josh fired back with a wide, mischievous smile before he began to start typing something into Cana’s phone. 

Well this certainly wasn’t going to end well. Well, at least not for Josh. 

Cana finally turned and saw that we were lining the wall. Her frustrated eyes landed on me. Whether they were frustrated because Josh had taken her phone and by extension, her life or because I hadn’t stepped in to help I wasn’t sure. But there was no way I was getting involved in this. I was already injured and between Cana’s direct aggressiveness and Josh’s flailing appendages I would surely end up even more hurt, if not in the hospital. 

But next thing I knew Josh was headed in the direction of the shopping center. Though Cana was hot on his heels. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see as each one of the guys turned to look at me. I turned in Matt’s direction. “Someone might want to go after them...Unless you want a new lead singer.”

“Do you really think that will be necessary?” Ian asked, his head peeking out from behind Matt’s body. 

Just then we heard an aggravated scream from Cana followed by echoes of Josh’s laughter. “Um yes...” 

Matt hit Ian on the arm. They exchanged a look before taking off in the direction that Josh and Cana had went. 

I watched as they went before turning to Mike who was still at my side. “You’re not going with them?” I asked throwing my head in the direction of the others.

“And have to fight off Josh? No thanks. Besides,” he smiled wide at me before he continued. “Who would keep you company?”

It was a smooth line. I’d give him that. And that was all I was going to give him for a few moments because I didn’t know how to respond to such a comment. I hadn’t dated in a while, deciding to focus on the business, so I honestly wasn’t sure if he was trying to flirt with me or just being friendly. 

Finally, I swallowed hard and glanced up at him with a small (and slightly nervous) smile. “Do you think that we should follow them?” I asked after a moment. He broke eye contact long enough to turn in the direction that the others had, literally, run off in. Placing a hand on his brow to deter the early afternoon sun from his eyes he continued to stare. 

“Yea,” he said tuning back to me. “I can’t see or hear them any longer so one of them just might be dead,” he chuckled. I found myself chuckling too.

“That seems to be becoming a running theme.”

We then headed over to the mall. Following the same path that Cana and the rest of the band had. We had just rounded the corner to hear Josh declare that they would head to the music store while he dragged Ian off with him. 

“No casualties yet,” Mike said. I could hear the smile in his voice without having to look up. 

“Damn,” I said snapping my fingers as if it were a missed opportunity. “And here I was preparing to be the new lead singer of your band.”   
He laughed and then asked, “Well can you sing?” as if he were actually considering the possibility. 

“Ah, no. Singing is definitely not my forte. I think I’ll stick to my day job.” I noticed now that both Cana and Matt were gone now as well. I patted the phone in my pocket. My initial reaction was to call Cana to make sure she was alright but I found myself letting my hand fall back by my side. Since she was last seen with Matt and not carving out the heart of an eccentric singer I figured that she was alright. And I did happen to be enjoying Mike’s company. 

“Do you mind if we stop in here?” I asked pointing up at a bookstore named Turning Pages. 

“Sure,” he said motioning for me to go in first. I headed for the fiction section. I didn’t have anything against autobiographies or recounting wars or anything like that. I just preferred the escape that fiction provided. I glanced over the display of the best sellers and the new releases that just happened to be right next too each other. Picking up a bright red book with a knife on the cover I flipped it over to read the summery. 

“Do you read a lot?” I heard Mike ask from beside me. 

“I try,” I said putting the book back down. It was a murder mystery. Not my favorite type of story. “I haven’t had much of a chance to read recently.”

Mike wad holding a book of his own but promptly put it back down when he noticed I was looking at him. “Not a winner?” He nodded to the book I had put back. I shook my head before deciding to look in the aisle behind the display. 

“How about you?” I asked.

“What about me?”

“Do you read a lot?” 

He shrugged his shoulders. “I do when I can.” He then took a book at random from the shelf to look over. “But being a musician doesn’t always give you the opportunity to sit down and read a good book, you know? Why are you laughing?” 

He was staring at me puzzled as I was now crouched down, practically doubled over trying to keep my giggling at a reasonable level.

“What?” he asked again. A nervous smile was plastered on his face but anyone could clearly see his eyes shifting out of discomfort.

I pointed to the book in his hand. He promptly flipped to book over to look at the cover. His long sigh told me that he now knew why I was laughing. Because in the bassist’s hands were a copy of 50 Shades of Grey. 

“Really?” he said peering down at me. Though the look on his face didn’t appear to be anything close to mad or embarrassed. He seemed more amused by my reaction if anything. 

He put the book back on the shelf before offering me a hand to help me up which I gladly took. 

“Sorry,” I said while a laugh couple of chuckles died on my lips. “I just didn’t peg you as and S&M kind of guy,” I joked. 

“You’d be surprised...” he replied quickly with a devious smile, crossing his arms and leaning back against the shelf while doing so. 

Ok, I was maybe 74.3% sure he was flirting with me now. 

“I don’t think I’m going to get anything,” I quickly changed the subject. “You done?”

“Yup,” he said as he shoved his hands in his pockets, letting me lead the way back out. 

We walked the hallway in silence for a few minutes. Mike looked casual, occasionally looking around incase one of his bandmates were to reappear. I, however, was the more awkward one. My eyes were fixed on the checkered pattern on the floor, occasionally glancing up to see if there was an interesting store we could go into the pass some time or if Mike was looking at me. 

“So...” he finally spoke. “Are you from Boston?”

“The accent give it away?” I chuckled. Most people knew about the famous Boston accent. How we tended to drop the ‘r’s from our speech, turning the ends of ‘er’ words into an ‘ah’ sound. Granted, I didn’t have a heavy accent, but when it came out, people who weren’t from Massachusetts tended to notice. 

“Can you say the whole ‘Park the car...”

“Pahk the cah in Havahd Yahd,” I said without missing a beat. The phrase ‘Park the car in Harvard Yard’ was the most commonly known way to display a Boston accent. 

“Wow...” He sounded impressed as he stared down at me. “But you don’t always sound like that. You pronounce a lot of your ‘r’s.”

“Well, when I was younger I taught myself...OH GOD!” I screamed as the glass window of the store we were passing banged behind me. I turned to see Ian in a sparkly green eye mask with his face pressed up against the glass. 

“What the hell?” I said placing a hand over my heart to show him just how much he had startled me. Ian just dropped his jaw to make another face. He then laughed, pulling back from the glass, and ran back down the aisle of the store. 

I next turned to find Mike. I soon found out that I was practically in his arms. I blushed immediately. In the midst of me being scared I must’ve jumped back and practically into him. “Sorry,” I quickly said, taking a few steps toward the store to put enough distance between us. 

“It’s alright,” he assured. “I’m used to having my personal bubble popped on occasion. You ok though?” He reached out and touched my shoulder to ensure that I was once again steady on my feet. 

I nodded my head in response before adding on, “Yea, I should be ok.” At that moment I saw something move behind the glass of the party shop. Turning back in it’s direction before I was scared out of my wits again I saw not only Ian, but Matt this time as well. Ian was still adorned in his sparkly green eye mask but Matt on the other hand was looking much more regal. There standing in the window the guitarist had on a pink and silver tiara which matched a long pink feather boa that fell over his shoulder. He waved slowly to the shoppers passing by the window while Ian pretended to grovel at Matt’s feet.

I must’ve been too preoccupied with laughing at the spectacle because next thing I knew Mike’s hand was wrapping around mine as he pulled me in the direction of the store. “Come on,” he said with a wide smile and I found myself following after him without a question. 

Once we were inside the store we made our way over to Matt and Ian who promptly commanded that we bow to Matt. Or more correctly, that we bow to Princess Mattantha of Canadia. Both Mike and I bit our lips to keep from laughing but both obliged and leaned over in a proper bow. 

“The lady must curtsey,” Matt spoke in his best impersonation of the Queen of England before outstretching his hand as if expecting one of us to kiss it.

“Fine,” I declared after rolling my eyes playfully. Picking up my hands as if I was holding the skirt of a fancy dress I dipped my body low and bowed my head in a curtsey. 

“Not you,” Matt said as I stood back up. Looking at him with my eyebrow quirked in confusion I could see that the shaggy haired man was trying to hold back laughter. Suddenly his eyes shifted over to Mike. “You,” Matt said as he raised his hand to point at the bassist. “It is you that must curtsey.”  
Mike looked as confused as I did. Mimicking Matt’s motions he pointed at himself, also trying to hold back chuckles.

“Yes, you. Now come on, we don’t have all day fair lady.” Now we were all biting our lips while out bodies shook as we tried to keep the laughter locked inside. 

Then Mike, being the good sport he was, said, “If that is what the princess wishes.” His tone might have been slightly mocking but he curtseyed anyway. And as he rose he spun as if wearing a large Victorian skirt for good measure. 

Ian and I couldn’t hold it in any longer and we both burst out into laughter. Ian clung to one of the aisle shelves while I was practically on the floor as I had been in the book store. Mike and Matt couldn’t help but to join in now.

“Sorry it wasn’t as graceful as Veronica’s,” Mike said before glancing over at me as I pealed myself off of the floor. 

“I don’t know, man. That was pretty elegant,” Matt said with an assured head nod as if to prove his point. But it was only made more ridiculous because he was still wearing his tiara and boa. 

Just then an a women came around the corner. She was clearly an employee evident by her shirt that read ‘Poppin’ Parties’ written in letters drawn in resemblance to balloons and a boy holding a needle who was trying to pop them. Being that this was a party store it was expected to get rowdy from time to time but the woman didn’t seem to expect it coming from four adults. We all stopped as if we had gotten caught with our hands in the proverbial cookie jar. Shaking her head the employee walked off but not before giving us a stern look only a librarian would be proud of. We all looked at each other with guilty faces as she left. 

“Maybe we should get out of here,” Ian suggested as he wiggled the mask off his head.

“Seconded,” Matt replied as he also removed his costume.

“Where’s Josh?” Mike asked, glancing around as if the singer was going to pop out behind one of the cutouts.

“And Cana?” I added in. 

“Well we were in the food court and I went to go into the bathroom and on my way back I ran into Ian and he dragged me in here. They’re probably still there,” Matt said calmly. The only thing was, I was anything but calm. 

“Ok well let’s go look for them,” I said heading out of the store, not really paying attention if they were following. Just as I reached the fountain I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Mike.

“It’s okay. They’re around here somewhere. I know we joke about Josh and Cana killing each other but…”

Mike got to cut off as we heard loud arguing coming from around the corner. And surely enough it was Cana and Josh. I breathed a sigh of relief as they came into view. It was evident that they had been to the food court. Josh was holding a half eaten slice of pizza while Cana had a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone. I made sure to smile at Mike before I tried flagging them over. But the pair had already seemed to be subconsciously aware of our presence, moving toward us even though they hadn’t taken their eyes off one another as they engage in verbal battle.

“HES A FUCKING MAN! There's nothing super about him,” That was the first sentence I was able to make out of their conversation. And if they were arguing about what I thought they were arguing about then this was going to end badly.

“But everyone can relate to Batman, he’s the common man…” Josh tried to retort before being cut off by Cana 

“The common man?! Please! He’s a spoiled orphan that needed something to do so he spent his money on toys!”

“TOYS?! Those are gadgets, not toys! And besides everyone can use a utility belt. BECAUSE NOT FUCKING EVERYONE IS AN ALIEN!” Josh leaned towards Cana to emphasize his point. “AND if Superman had a utility belt then maybe he would able to destroy rocks instead of becoming a pussy every time he trips over a green pebble. Boom!” he shouted as if he had won the argument. But oh God did I know better than to underestimate Cana in this situation.

And is if on cue Cana shoved her hand out to stop his celebration. “Excuse me but there is a reason Superman doesn't need a utility belt. Oh yea, Cause he’s a SUPERhero.” She pushed up on her tiptoes as she made her emphasis. “Batman is just the rich version of Inspector Gadget. Sure everyone can use a utility belt, but not everyone NEEDS one. What can kill Superman? Kryptonite, his ONLY weakness. What can kill Batman? Pretty much anything. BECAUSE HES A HUMAN BEING!” she shouted before going into acting out an example. Because no Cana argument was complete without the theatrics. “‘Oh, you have a gun?’” she said putting her hand over her heart. “‘It’s okay. I don't need impenetrable skin as long as I have my Baterang!’ yea cause that’s going to work.” Huffing she crossed her arms the best she could with her ice cream still in hand. 

Josh, who had been eerily silent during Cana’s rebuttal stared at her, his lips pressed into a thin, unamused line. But then they quirked up. I didn’t have to know Josh that well to know that that was a signal for trouble. “Oh jeez,” I heard Matt say from beside me. I didn’t know when him and Ian had caught up with Mike and I but it seemed all to apparent that we were all focused on watching them.  
Next thing we all know Josh smacked the ice cream cone out of Cana’s hand causing her to jump in surprise. “I guess it looks like you could have used a utility belt to catch that.” 

Cana’s face turned red. Some of the people passing by might have thought it was out of embarrassment but no. That was pure rage. And with a gurgled scream she lunged at him. Josh only made it worse by laughing. It was obviously the reaction he had wanted. “I am going to kill you!” Cana shouted as she tried to grip Josh’s shirt. But he kept moving just out of reach. Matt moved forward quickly in an attempt to separate them as Mike and Ian attempted to get Josh out of Cana’s reach. I guess that meant I got Cana. 

“Calm down” Matt said as he tried to force the two apart. 

“Dunananananananananananana,” Josh sang, surely to piss Cana off more. Which seemed to be working because Cana started to develop Superman’s strength as she kept knocking me off of her. 

Somewhere between all the hands moving Cana was able to grab onto Josh’s arm who quickly jerked back in response. However, this had dire consequence because Josh pulling away knocked Cana off balance and therefore me off balance and had us both hurtling over the side of the fountain.

I heard Cana yell beside me as we crashed. I had tried to inhale before I fell into the water but all I got was water. Thankfully the fountain wasn’t deep. A moment later I pushed to the surface to find Cana shaking the water from her hair. I immediately started coughing up water. 

“Are you ok? Let me help you out,” Mike said as he stepped toward me and held out his hand. I gladly took it and stumbled out and into him for a second.

“Sorry,” I said, still coughing. “I didn’t mean to get you wet.”

“It’s ok. Just a little bit of water. It was much better than the soda.” 

I couldn’t help but to chuckle. 

“Besides, I think I am in much better shape than you are,” he added on. “But you’re ok right?”

“Yea. Breathing is a bit off but I think I’ll live.” I almost got out another smile before I heard Cana yelling at Josh again. 

“You’re lucky I have a warranty on my phone!” Matt was helping her out of the fountain. After thanking him she marched back over to me. “Please tell me that your phone wasn’t on you when we fell in.”

“No. It’s in my purse.”

“Good. Because we are NOT going home with them. No offense,” she said looking up at Mike. 

“None taken.” Thankfully he seemed to understand why Cana was so pissed. 

“We are getting the sewing machine and then we are calling a cab,” she said tugging me back toward Thimbles. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six:**

**Cana’s POV:**

I finished the last seam of the red pant leg as I took another swig of my Coke Zero. I took the pants off the sewing machine and turned them right side in and admired my work. Another complete pair of pants for Falling in Reverse. I had to make the shirt that went with these pants, and then I’d be done with that band. I checked the time on my _new_ phone to see that it was almost nine in the morning. I had been up almost all night, seething, and putting all of my bent up anger into the making of clothes. I had finished the costumes for The Ready Set and I was almost done with FiR, which had surprisingly put us back on schedule.

After the fiasco last afternoon, everything had gone by in a blur. Veronica had to call a cab on her phone, since mine had been submerged in a fountain, which took us back to our warehouse, fixed sewing machine in tow. I had not really spoken since our little dip, and Veronica seemed to be okay with that. When we got back, V went in without me as I took a quick trip to the Apple store, paying a small fee to get my new phone and a new life proof _and_ water proof case. When I got back to the warehouse, V hopped off of the machine and I started working immediately. Veronica sat by me for a while, knowing that what I was doing was therapeutic, until she decided that she would catch up on some sleep. Ghost Town came in for their fittings, and that had perked me up a little bit. Those guys were awesome and they made me and V laugh, which had helped salvaged the day for me. When they had left, Veronica went back to sleep after checking on me again, and now we were here. Nine in the morning, still no Veronica, and I had completed almost two wardrobes in an evening.

Apparently, I needed to get mad more often.

I started measuring out the shirt for Max Green, which I had planned to be a white, sleeveless button down with red sequined accents to match his pants, when I heard Veronica enter the room. I turned around and smiled at her. Her hair was a mess that she was trying to tame as she shuffled in wearing shorts and a baggy Slipknot t-shirt.

“Good morning,” I said as she came over to the stool and sat beside me. She tiredly smacked her lips before she let out a yawn.

I traced around the collar of the shirt as she asked me, “Have you been doing this all night?” I nodded as I continued around the other side of the neckline. “Like, _all_ night? Like, no sleep?”

“Yeah, but after I finish this shirt, we’re basically all caught up.”

“Really?” she gaped. I nodded. She chuckled, “Well, I guess that’s an accomplishment.” I smiled as I set the pencil down on the table and sighed.

“I need sustenance.”

“I have cereal.”

I looked over at her, “You know I hate cereal.”

She nodded, “Yeah, I was saying _I_ have cereal.” She stood and walked over to our makeshift kitchen, “I’m going to have some of _my_ cereal.” I smiled. Good old Veronica. I walked over to our “eating” table and grabbed an orange.

I began to peel it as Veronica poured her cereal and asked, “Do we have any bands coming today?”

I shook my head as I tossed the peel into the trash, “Nope. We have two more coming tomorrow, but today is strictly a sewing day.”

“Yay,” she replied with low enthusiasm.

“Hey, at least we’re nearing the end of this process,” I scoffed as I ripped the orange apart and put a slice into my mouth. “I’m getting really tired of making forty fucking pairs of pants.” Veronica only nodded, but I knew she truly felt my pain, if not even more so because she was the weaker seamstress. More power to her.

Veronica was pouring the milk into her cereal as my phone started to ring. I looked down at the screen, and then did a double take.

“Who is it?” Veronica asked with her mouth full of cereal.

“Uhh,” I leaned over and looked at the screen more intensely, “I don’t know.” I turned the screen around so she could see the caller ID. _Beer Fetish Father._

“Who the actual fuck,” she spat.

I shrugged my shoulders as I hesitantly answered the phone, “Hello?”

“Yeah, uh, Matt left his phone there yesterday, so we’re almost there.”

“…What?”

Sigh, “Matt left his phone on the table beside the couch and we’re coming to get it.” I turned around and looked. Sure enough there was an orphaned phone on the table that I hadn’t noticed. I turned back to Veronica as she mouthed, “Who is it?” But that’s when I truly put two and two together.

“What kind of name is “Beer Fetish Father”? And how did you get my number?”

“I’m good with my hands,” Josh’s voice oozed seductively.

I sighed as I leaned my head into my hand, “That’s what you were doing with my phone yesterday, wasn’t it?”

“A magician never reveals his secrets, toots,” he replied as Veronica leaned over to me and whispered, “Is that Marianas Trench?” I nodded as she set her bowl of cereal down and scurried out of the room. I was about to come back with a witty comment when Josh stated, “Be there in a few,” and hung up on me. I looked down at my phone as the screen went black and set it down beside me.

I shoved another slice of orange in my mouth as I called out, “Veronica?!” No answer. Where did she go? I wiped my hand on a napkin as I looked down at my clothes. I was – coincidentally – wearing my favorite Superman shirt and black yoga pants. My hair was braided off to the side. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better wardrobe for this occasion.

I had just finished my orange when a knock came at the front door. I wiped my mouth as I stood and walked to the door. There was another knock that came even louder as I opened the door and remained in the doorway. Josh was standing there, by himself, and scoffed with a faint smile on his face.

“Did you wear that shirt on purpose?”

“It’s what I put on yesterday when I changed out of my wet clothes,” I uttered.

“About that,” he said as his tone shifted and his body posture changed. He brought his hand from behind his back, revealing a small tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream, and held it out to me. He looked back up at me with a smirk and purred, “Sorry I knocked you into a fountain and wasted perfectly good ice cream.” I looked up at him as he cocked his head, “I had to say it out loud because they don’t make a Hallmark card for this situation.”

A smile crept onto my face as I took the ice cream from his hand and said, “Thank you,” and then promptly shut the door in his face.

“Cana, you can’t just shut the door on someone who brought you gifts,” Veronica spoke from behind me.

I turned around and corrected, “Gift.” She had changed into nicer clothes. Apparently she didn’t want to be seen in her pajamas. She was in dark wash skinny jeans and a red tank top.

I raised my eyebrows at her, making a nonverbal comment about her outfit, as she continued, “they came here for a reason.”

Oh yeah, they didn’t have Matt’s phone yet.

I turned back to the door and opened it again. Matt was now standing behind Josh, who smiled again as he said, “Changed your mind, sweets?”

“I forgot I had to let you in,” I replied as I rolled my eyes sarcastically. “I just became so overwhelmed by your charms I lost track of what I was doing.”

He shrugged, “It happens all the time.”

Matt scoffed behind him, “He wishes.”

I smiled at Matt as I held the door open wider, “Did you leave your phone here on purpose?”

He maneuvered around Josh and walked through the door, “I was carrying a sewing machine. I was a bit distracted.”

I turned to Josh, who was still in the doorway, “Either you come in, or I’m locking you out again.”

“You should be nicer to the man who just gave you ice cream,” he sassed as he walked in. I shut the door as he walked over to Matt and Veronica who were on the couch.

I sighed, “Well, that same man is the one who ruined my ice cream in the first place.”

He shrugged as he sat down on the free couch, “Semantics.” I shook my head, trying to hide my smile, as I walked over to our mini fridge and put away my ice cream. When I had closed the fridge, I stood up and walked over to my open Coke Zero and took a sip. Veronica was talking with Matt, but she looked a little put out. I wonder why. I looked over at Josh, who was staring at me. I cocked my head as a small smile crept onto his face.

“What?” I asked softly, not wanting to interrupt Matt and Veronica’s conversation. He pointed at me, and then made a drinking motion. He wanted a drink. Well, he _had_ bought me ice cream. I sighed as I waived him over. His smile grew as he hopped off the couch and made his way over. I got back into the minifridge and pulled out a new can and held it out to him.

As he took the can from my hand he held it up as a toast and said, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” I replied as I sat down on the stool.

He popped open the can and took a drink as he looked over at the shirt I had started to block out, “Who’s this for?”

“Falling in Reverse,” I said. I pointed to the red pants I had just finished. “I’m making them to match the pants.”

He took the pants in his free hand and nodded, “These are nice.”

“Yeah,” I smiled, “especially when they don’t have blood on them.”

“I heard that!” Veronica said. Josh and I turned around to see her and Matt looking over at us. “But once she makes that shirt, she’s going to start on your wardrobe.”

“ _We_ ,” I corrected. Just because I had finished two bands single handedly did not mean she was out of work. There were buttons and zippers to sew.

Josh looked over at me, “Do you know what they’re going to look like?”

“It’s a secret,” I replied. “You’ll find out the day of the show.”

“That’s no fun,” he pouted.

“Please tell me I’m wearing pink,” Matt sighed. “I wouldn’t be comfortable in anything else.”

“Mattantha needs his feather boa too,” Veronica said as they laughed together. Josh threw me a glance before we stared at them.

“And I thought you were weird,” I smirked. Josh turned back to the clothes on the table and looked through them.

“Where do you store all of the clothes you make?” he asked.

I threw my head in the general direction, “Up on the second floor.”

“And they’re arranged alphabetically,” V laughed. I mocked her, repeating her words in a lower octave.

Josh stood from his seat as I cautiously looked at him, “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to go use the bathroom,” he sighed with exasperation as he turned to look at me. “Is that okay, _mother_?”

“Just be back before curfew,” I replied in his same cynical tone.

I saw Matt throw his head in my direction as he whispered to Veronica, “She’s something else.”

“Try living with her,” she replied looking over at me. I stuck my tongue out as I picked up my drink and walked over to them. I sat down on the empty couch, putting me close to Matt.

He met my eyes as I said, “Sorry about how yesterday ended. I realize I seemed like quite a bitch.”

He shrugged, “Josh tends to bring that out in people.”

“So I’ve noticed,” I nodded as I took a sip of my drink.

“She just gets angry when you knock ice cream out of her hands,” Veronica smiled, before continuing, “and when you diss Superman, and when you make fun of her height, and when-”

“So, basically Josh in general,” Matt laughed.

“It takes a special person to tick me off multiple times in one day,” I shook my head.

“So, where’s the rest of the band today?” Veronica asked changing the topic.

“Well, they decided to stay back,” he replied as he shifted his gaze to me. “They claimed they were busy, but I think it’s because they’re scared of you and Josh together.”

I laughed, “Scared of us together, or scared of what we may do to each other?”

“We don’t want either one of you to die,” he smiled.

“I’d prefer that as well,” I said taking another sip.

“So, what did you all do after Cana stormed off with me?” Veronica asked as she leaned back, crossing her arms.

“Well, Mike and I told Josh he’s the reason we can’t keep friends-”

“I like you,” I smiled as he continued.

“-and then we went back to the music store with Mike. Josh ended up buying a new guitar and almost a new amp, but I talked him out of that one.” He leaned back and smiled, “Before we left, we did actually walk back in to Thimbles to see if you all were still there, but you weren’t.”

“That’s sweet,” Veronica said looking at me. She said it in more of a “now you can be nice to them” way, rather than an actual sweet response.

I nodded as Matt finished, “And then we went back to our hotel. It wasn’t an exciting day after that.”

“And then you realized you left your phone.”

He nodded, “And then Josh was like, “I’ll take you! I’ll call and warn her,” and that’s about when Mike and Ian said they had things to do.”

I sat up peering over the back of the couch, “Speaking of your band mates, where is Josh?” Matt and V turned around as well. “He’s been gone a while, and that makes me nervous.”

“He said he was going to the bathroom, Cana,” Veronica laughed.

I turned to her, “It’s past his curfew. He’s up to something.” I set my drink onto the table and walked over to the hallway. This is where we had been with them yesterday to get their measurements. The bathroom was around the corner, but the door was open and the room was dark. I knew it. I turned to the right and looked up the stairs.

_Oh dear._

I heard Matt and Veronica following me as I started up the stairs. I turned the corner to the room where we were storing the costumes for the bands and my hands immediately flew to my mouth as I muttered, “Oh my God.” Matt and Veronica weren’t far behind me and met the sight in front of us with the same reaction.

Josh Ramsay had been trying on other bands’ clothes. His current outfit consisted of Courage My Love’s Mercedes Arn-Horn’s emerald green black studded bra-top with Blackbird’s Gia Farrell’s mini-top hat fascinator on his head. He was in the process of pulling on Air Dubai’s Nick Spreigl’s black skinny jeans that were ripped at the knee when we entered the room.

“Damn, I look good,” he said as he buttoned the pants. Matt was laughing hysterically behind me, and I could tell Veronica was trying to hold it in, mostly because she was worried about how I would react to this scene.

“Joshua, what are you doing?” I asked coyly.

“Breaking in these outfits,” he said as he picked up Bayside’s Jack O’Shea’s long sleeved plaid button down and tied it around his waist. “It’s a rough job, but somebody’s gotta do it.”

My hand moved from my mouth to my head as I shook it. Veronica had started to laugh now. Josh walked to the rack for Echosmith and took Sydney’s blue fascinator that had red feathers off the top of the stand. Josh sauntered over to me and ran the feathers across my cheek.

“I gotta be honest, I can’t wait to get into your pants.” I cocked my head, unaffected as he continued, “If these fit me this well as they do and they’re not even mine, I know you’re going to do some fine ass quality work with my measurements.”

I nodded as I heard Veronica start laughing again, “I take it that’s your form of a compliment?”

“Sure,” he said as he placed Sydney’s fascinator on my head. He flicked the red feathers with his fingers and then poked my chest. “It matches.” I looked down and sure enough, the colors matched my Superman top. I looked back up at him as he winked at me, then turned his sights on Matt. “Matt, come in here. I’ll help you pick out an outfit. You’ll look glorious!”

“You look like a hot mess,” I replied before Matt could answer. “You gotta get out of those clothes.”

“Well, at least I’m a _hot_ mess, right?” Josh smirked.

“No, you look like big slut showing off that much of your stomach,” Matt retorted.

“Hey,” Josh exclaimed, “I’m a classy broad!” He walked back into the room and slowly untied the plaid shirt from around his waist, “So, I sucked a guy’s dick outside Chili’s _one time_. That doesn’t make me a slut.” I followed him into the room and took the plaid shirt from him and grabbed the empty hanger from Bayside’s rack.

I was putting the shirt back on the hanger when Veronica stepped in front of Josh and said, “No, it’s the two guys you sucked off at the Jack-in-the-Box that makes you a big slut.” I rolled my eyes. I could always handle her, but when this man was here with material she could easily work with, I had no control over the situation.

I turned to Matt and asked, “Could you undo his top, please?”

“Does it unhook like a bra?” he asked as he tried to maneuver himself around to Josh’s back.

“Yeah,” I smirked, “you have much practice taking those off?”

“Oh yeah, Matt’s the ladies man of the group,” Josh confirmed, “Ian’s the MILF lover, Mike’s the wine-and-dine type, and I’m the slut.”

I looked over at Matt as he unclasped the top, “Congratulations, I think you have the better title.”

“It’s a curse,” he smiled as he threw me the top.

Josh yelled, “I’m indisposed!” as I found Courage My Love’s rack and the hanger for Mercedes’ top. I hope she wouldn’t mind that an insane, sweaty man had been in her top. Maybe I should wash it. Or at least spray it down with Febreeze. Veronica took the fascinator off his head as he yelled at Matt, “You should have at least bought me dinner first.”

“I thought that was Mike’s forte,” Veronica quipped as she put it back on Blackbird’s rack. He turned around and smiled at her as she crossed her arms, “Do we have to take your pants off of you too, or can you do it yourself since you’re a big boy?”

“What’s with everyone trying to play my mother today?” Josh whined as he unbuttoned his pants. I bent down and picked up his skinny jeans off the floor and threw them at him. This was the second time I had seen this man in his boxers within twenty-four hours, and not even for a good reason. I looked around the rest of the room. It still looked intact, but I’d probably have to let Veronica reorganize it again after the little fashion show.

Josh was putting his shirt on when I got back into my commander mode, “Okay, we all need to move downstairs.”

“Yes, boss lady,” Matt saluted as he followed Veronica out of the room. That was apparently his nickname for me when I used my “in charge” voice.

Josh shoved his head through his shirt as he walked over to me and pointed to the fascinator that was still on my head, “You missed one.”

“Thank you,” I replied cynically as I took it off my head.

Josh stepped out of the doorway and smiled, “I’m here to serve.”

I honestly couldn’t decide, when he was in this realm, if he was annoying or charming.

“Come on, SuperShit. We’re going downstairs, like we were _told to_!”

The answer was annoying.

I set the fascinator down near the rack it belonged to, deciding that Veronica would tidy things up after the men had left. I walked down the stairs and found the group huddled around the “eating” table. Josh was sipping on the Coke Zero I had given him earlier while Matt and Veronica were debating over a box of cookies. I walked to retrieve my can of Coke Zero and headed in between Matt and Josh. Josh was flipping through pictures on his phone, until I realized it was my phone.

“Seriously?” I sighed. I saw him smile, but he continued to look through my phone, “Could you not find anything else to tamper with?”

“It’s not my fault the code to get into your phone is your name,” he scoffed. “Yeah, two-two-six-two is a _really_ hard code.” I just continued to stare at him as he got into my older pictures from when V and I were in our early college days.

“I’ll take my phone back now, ple-”

“Shit! Is that you and Veronica?!” He gaped as he pulled Matt over me to see my screen. It was a picture of us from our Senior year Halloween party. We had gone as Living Dead Dolls, which were China dolls made to look more terrifying than they already were. We had started out looking pretty terrifying, but it somehow turned into a sexy affair. We had won the costume competition at the party – I had made our outfits and V had made us up. That was one of the instances where we knew we would be doing this for a living.

“Well, shit,” Matt commented. Veronica caught my gaze and smiled as she rolled her eyes. I had on a long, straight pink wig with a pale pink dress overlaid with black lace. Veronica had painted my face a pale white with black stitches all across my mouth. Veronica wore a Stepford-wife style of dress that was red with black accents and a shoulder length, curly red wig. Her face was also pale, but all of her features – eye brows, lips, eye shadow, eye lashes – were detailed in red. We were terrifying and sexy at the same time. We were the talk of that party. It was a great night.

“This is bad ass,” Josh said as he pinched the photo, making it bigger to inspect the finer details.

“I was trying to get Cana over her fear of dolls, but I probably just made it worse,” she giggled. I nodded as she shrugged, “but, we looked hot though, so bright side!”

“I got to make out with Keith at that party because of that outfit,” I laughed. “So, yeah. Bright side.”

“Rub it in my face, why don’t ya,” Veronica smiled.

“You’re just jealous because you had zero action that night,” I chirped.

“Who’s the slut now?” Josh sassed.

“It’s not that I didn’t get offers,” Veronica defended, “they were all just…losers.”

Matt laughed as he and Josh looked through more pictures of that night, “You’re picky about your hookups, huh?”

“Why do you want to know?” Veronica smirked, and then shrugged it off, “I tend to be picky when there are drunken, handsy men around.”

Josh got to a picture of a blonde guy pressed up against me dressed as Frankenstein’s monster and asked, “Keith, I presume?”

“Yep, that’s him,” I nodded as I took another sip of my Coke Zero.

“He doesn’t have bolts on his neck!” he shrieked.

I stared at him, “So?”

“How could you make out with a guy who’s supposed to be Frankenstein’s monster without the neck bolts?” He scoffed, “That’s just lazy.”

I pointed to the picture, “Do you see that man?” He nodded. I smirked, “The neck bolts were the last thing on my mind.”

“Cana got game,” Matt chanted.

They swiped to find a new picture, but they happened upon a short video I had taken of Veronica. I had saved this because I had intended to use it as collateral. This had occurred in our apartment in Boston. I had come back after a shift from work and found V singing and dancing around our living room wearing nothing but boy shorts and a bra to Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard.

The boys were about to play the video as Veronica yelled, “Nooo!” and took the phone from their hands. She shot a hard glare at me, “Cana Herron, I swear, if _anyone_ sees this, _ever,_ I’m going to tell everyone you were born with a tail.”

Josh broke out into laughter, clapping his hands awkwardly, as Matt looked over at me and asked, “Were you seriously born with a tail?”

I was about to shake my head, as Veronica answered, “Wouldn’t _you_ like to know?” Veronica firmly placed my phone back in my hand as she whispered, “Keep this safe.”

“I try,” I replied, “but you never know when an ice-cream-sacrificing lunatic will shove you in a fountain.”

“It was _one time_!” Josh yelled.

I put my phone back into my pocket and sighed, “Well, I don’t mean to be rude-”

“But you will?” Josh goofily smiled, leaning onto his hands.

“ _But_ Veronica and I have a lot of work to do.” Veronica looked over at me. I could tell she was a little disappointed. Listen, as much as part of the group annoyed me, these guys were awesome, and I would honestly love to spend the whole day with them. But when we were this caught up, I didn’t want to lose our edge.

“That’s totally fine. We did kind of spring this visit on you,” Matt agreed.

“Don’t forget your phone,” I smiled. Veronica walked to the door and held it open for the guys. I followed them to the door, laughing to myself as Josh picked Veronica up in a bear hug. I could tell it was a shock to her as well. Matt turned around, smiled, and held out his arms. I laughed out loud as I accepted the hug. “You guys are awesome.”

“Most of the time,” he said as we stepped out of the hug. He went over to Veronica and gave her a gentler hug than her previous one. I looked over at Josh, who walked up to me and smiled.

He patted me on the head and said, “See you later, SuperShortie.”

I rolled my eyes as I punched him lightly in the gut, “Goodbye you Giraffe.”

“Giraffe? That’s awesome!” Veronica squealed. I sighed as the guys walked out of the door with another wave and their last verbal goodbyes as Veronica latched it behind them. I walked back over to the measuring table and looked down.

Veronica followed me over as we both looked at the shirt in progress, “So, are we really going to do this all day?”

I cocked my head and smiled, “What other choice do we have?” She shrugged as I smiled, “I can finish up this shirt if you want to get started on one of the Marianas Trench’s outfits.”

Her smiled grew as she stood, “I’ll go get the material!”

She hurried out of the room as I walked over to the mini fridge and retrieved the ice cream. I opened the carton and grabbed a spoon and laughed, “That’s one way to get her motivated to work.” I dug out a spoonful and let the ice cream rest on my tongue and sighed. Sweet chocolate-minty goodness.


End file.
